“While we may not be able to change the minds and hearts of everyone in the seven short months leading up to the election in May, I am confident that the majority of fair-minded North Carolinians who oppose this amendment will make their will known and we will prevail.”– Stuart Campbell, the new executive director for Equality NC.

As the LGBT community and allies in the state of North Carolina face the challenge of defeating a marriage amendment at the polls next may, there is a new face of leadership at Equality NC, succeeding Ian Palmquist. Campbell steps into his role on October 24.

“I am deeply honored and excited about the opportunity to serve North Carolina’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and to build upon Equality NC’s tremendous success,” said Campbell, who most recently served as the Community Services manager in the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs in Austin. “I look forward to getting to know and working with our dedicated supporters, legislators and coalition partners as we strive to further Equality NC’s mission to secure equality and justice for the LGBT community in North Carolina.”

Campbell is a seasoned professional whose non-profit experience includes several years as an advocate and lobbyist on disability and anti-poverty issues, ultimately serving as Executive Director of the Coalition on Human Needs in Washington, D.C. In 2008, Campbell joined the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, first as a senior policy advisor and then as Community Affairs manager, where he administered over $220 million in federal and state funds aimed at alleviating poverty.

From 2003 to 2009, Campbell served on the board of Equality Texas, Equality NC’s sister organization in Texas. He was actively involved in the state’s anti-LGBT amendment fight in 2005. Equality NC Board Chair Dan Gurley noted that Campbell’s experience in another large southern state would serve the organization well during its current campaign against a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am thrilled that Stuart will lead the next chapter of Equality NC,” said Gurley. “Stuart has seen first-hand the challenges facing LGBT populations in the South and I know he is committed to Equality NC’s mission of securing equality and justice for LGBT North Carolinians. His impressive work to advance this mission for all makes him a perfect fit for the organization during the amendment battle ahead.”

…Equality NC Foundation Chair Rod Goins invited the public to meet Campbell at the Equality NC Foundation’s annual Conference and Gala, on Saturday, November 12, in Greensboro. “Join us as we welcome Stuart to North Carolina and come together to educate, share and prepare each other for the work ahead.”

And he has to hit the ground running to get a campaign launched because, in related news, an interesting and initially daunting set of poll numbers was released by Public Policy Polling (PPP) yesterday.

PPP’s first look at the proposed marriage amendment in North Carolina since the legislature placed it on the ballot finds it leading 61-34. Republicans are overwhelmingly in favor of it (80/17) and independents (52/43) and Democrats (49/44) support it as well, although by more narrow margins.

Before people think it’s already a done deal, the devil is in the details, because most North Carolinians actually support legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples, just not “marriage.” That suggests, as PPP notes, these same people are moveable because they don’t know the scope of the havoc the amendment would wreak.

The interesting thing is that 51% of this same set of voters supports legal recognition for gay couples. 22% favor gay marriage and another 29% civil unions, with only 46% completely opposed to granting same sex couples legal recognition. The problem for those trying to defeat the amendment is that 37% of voters who support gay marriage or civil unions are still planning to vote for it. That suggests a lot of folks aren’t familiar with how wide reaching the proposed amendment would be and it gives those fighting it a chance- they just have to get their message out effectively to the majority of North Carolinians who do support legal recognition for gay couples that the proposal goes too far.

This is really a classic example of how small differences in poll question wording can lead to huge differences in how people respond. Last month we asked the following question “State legislators have proposed an amendment to the North Carolina Constitution that would prohibit the recognition of marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships for gay and lesbian couples. If the election was held today,would you vote for or against this amendment?” When you ask it that way only 30% of voters are supportive and 55% are opposed. Voters are against ‘prohibiting’ recognition for gay couples. But if you word it in such a way that all you’re doing is defining marriage as between one man and one woman, voters are ok with that. You’re asking about the same thing in both cases, but the semantics make a huge difference and Republicans clearly know what they’re doing with the language that’s on the ballot.

I’m sorry to say that the same poll reflects a fundamental piece of work that Equality NC and amendment opponents have to deal with — reaching black Democrats; that demo supports the amendment 70% to 25%. IMHO, what is key is to mobilize our affirming faith communities of color – they must challenge these voters to not just think beyond their personal religious beliefs, but to the unconstitutional foundation of this amendment – it will reflect one specific worldview of civil rights (openly defended by its sponsors as reflecting religious beliefs) — what is next?

What do those numbers mean? It means we need foot soldiers doing door to door in black neighborhoods talking about the amendment — and we need out people of color doing that canvassing to dispel the notion that the LGBT rights movement is only about white LGBTs. We need images of LGBTs of color out there, raising families, being those voters neighbors; it’s time to lift the veil of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the black church.

William Barber, of the state NAACP wrote a powerful open letter asking the black community to reject a marriage amendment that narrows – not expands – civil rights. It is a guideline, a roadmap on how to address the religious black community when speaking about this amendment.

“There is no history of enacting constitutional amendments for the purpose of restricting individual freedoms. [These proposed amendments against gay people] stand in stark contrast to the amendments that have been adopted in the spirit of freedom and liberty. As James Madison explained, constitutional amendments are reserved ‘for certain great and extraordinary occasions.’ Amending [a state or federal] Constitution to strip civil rights away from any group of persons is not such an occasion.”

…The issue of same sex marriage is a matter of conscience — a matter of religious or moral perspective. It should be worked out within one’s conscience, within one’s faith, and within one’s own heart and faith community. The North Carolina legislature is not the modern day Council of Nicaea — and we should not want it to be. Public policy, not personal morality, is what we ought to address in the legislature. How should the government address the public policy challenges of abject poverty, unemployment, poor education, economic justice, caring for those without health care, and equal protection under law? These are the questions that the legislature should be addressing.

It leaves ENC and the LGBT community a mighty task, but not an insurmountable one — the campaign to defeat this has to step outside of comfort zones to change hearts and minds with facts in a demographic that is not seeing this amendment for what it is. At a press conference leading up to the vote to place the amendment on the ballot, ENC had members of the faith community speak in opposition. We will need to have more of this visiblity to close the gap.

Rev. Dr. T Anthony Spearman, pastor of the ?Clinton Tabernacle AME Zion Church in Hickory, NC, stands with other statewide clergy from all denominations at the North Carolina General Assembly in opposition of the state’s proposed anti-LGBT amendment.

It’s fitting that EqualityNC will honor Rep. Marcus Brandon, D-Guilford, the second openly gay lawmaker elected in North Carolina history, with its 2011 Legislative Leadership Award to be presented at this year’s Equality Gala on Saturday, November 12. ENC noted:

Marcus was frequently in the spotlight this year in the days leading up to the House and Senate votes on the now infamous anti-LGBT amendment. In May, when he hosted a press conference featuring a room full of faith leaders opposed to the amendment, he memorably said of the anti-LGBT/pro-amendment rally being held concurrently outside of the legislature, “The Bible has been used in this nation to support slavery, segregation, laws against interracial marriage, and to deny women’s rights. Jesus was a compassionate person. And Jesus would not be having a rally outside right now.”

Rep. Brandon had to take verbal abuse by the homophobic preachers that showed up to boost the amendment. As I said at the time:

Marcus Brandon has a level of diplomacy toward his peers in the NC General Assembly that I could never muster on an issue like this, where those supporting a marriage amendment in our state have shown the general public and the press nothing but obfuscation, cowardly actions to slip in a vote under the radar, and holding town hall meetings that continue to conflate church and state. I can’t respect that kind of politically dishonest jiu-jitsu. Then again, that’s why I’ll never hold public office, lol.

14 Responses
to “Equality NC announces new executive director; new polling on amendment and challenges ahead”

dispel the notion that the LGBT rights movement is only about white LGBTs

The problem for you, unfortunately, is the fact that this particular IS only about white LGBTs.

Pam likes to forget this, but LGBT POCs have consistently stated that gay marriage is not an important issue for them. There are simply more important things to worry about for most POC LGBT folks. Unfortunately its the usual white guys setting the agenda and pushing an issue that’s just not that important to folks that are not them.

Pam has completely bought into the story that marriage is the most important issue for LGBT folks. Sadly for her, most POC LGBT folks don’t agree and are not going to waste their time and limited resources fighting so that the same rich white guys can throw their dream wedding.

Pam, let us know when you’re ready to address the rampant racism and classism in the LGBT community. Then maybe folks will be ready to take your call to arms seriously.

I salute Pam for her fine efforts towards recruiting African-American voters in North Carolina to vote on the side of justice. I remember the uplift over seeing Shidiva Black-White marrying Sherri Black-White when equality had been achieved in California. Alison D. Yin’s photo of the couple was taken for the Associated Press. Around that same time, the African-American Mayor of Oakland, Roland Dellums married couples, including an African-American lesbian couple. Present at that ceremony; United States Representative Barbara Lee of the Congressional Black Caucus. And, Alice Huffman, President of the California State Conference of the NAACP is known as a forceful advocate for marriage equality.

Frankly, your reaction to Pam is more about you acting out and abusing a victim (even if your victim is “only” on a computer) than it is about any of the issues you raise. In your irrational attack, you reveal more about yourself than you do about your intended target, though you are not insightful enough to understand that is true. What’s more, the substance of your message is documentably untrue, as there are many gay and lesbian people of color presently married in jurisdictions where such marriages are recognized. Evidently you are too selfish and wound up inside your own head, and so smugly certain in your assertions, that you don’t give a damn about the well-being of gay people of color who wish to marry.

Gay marriage would’ve never been such a hot button issue if not pushed by African American, Latino and other communities of color as a crutch to boost up membership in churches and scapegoat us for all of society’s ills, and the problems that plague communities of color. How come communities of color always gloss over that? Rich white gay men or those who passed amendments banning the “concept” of same sex marriage are not the only ones to blame for making it such a polarized issue.

Some of these damning issues could be resolved if communities of color stop with their concern trolling and lip service and address the issues of neglect, abuse, animosity, vilification of LBGTs that come from them and THEM only, not a bunch pastry queens, and help US. They could also support US when LGBT of color are not at death’s door when it comes to the HIV/AIDs issues as well. How about stop putting putting all the weight and responsibility of our issues on those “White gays” you and you tired Straight folks keep bemoaning about. Hypothetically speaking, if folks are unimpressed with the LGBT movement in regards to issues pertaining to LGBT of color, then why the hell don’t the heterosexual “brothas” and “sistas” do something about it? You know, the ones go on about the cheesy concept of ethnic kinship and what not? The one go on with the cheesy diatribe about sticking together and supporting on another? Logic says that POC would be more sensitive to issues that affect LGBT of color, yet, that doesn’t seem to be the case. We have to beg and plead for our existence to be known and to recognize our humanity!? We have to “reach out” to them so about our plights and personal issues can be known when we endure same BS they go through? WTF?

SciFi Geek, you’re in denial about the venom and malice many in the Black, Latino, and other POC have for LGBTs as well. You should let us know when you and others are going top blaming White gay men for issues OUR communities can easily remedied if they just supported us for once and stop bashing us. I would feel a lot better being uplifted and being supported by my own folks, those who I am suppose to call “my people” or “mi gente” but they seem to suffer from selective morality, selective ignorance, selective anger and just outright vindictiveness and maliciousness.

I agree that marriage is not a priority (nor it should be) for many LGBT of color…..And that’s probably because they’re to busy trying to survive another day of you know, being killed/slaughtered by other POC or just outright malicious homophobes. I live in Massachusetts where same-sex marriage is legalized, and gay marriage isn’t a priority because…..I have no intention of getting married…. Not because people like you and others are screeching that it isn’t an issues of relevance.

I disagree that we should try to reach out to those who oppose us on this issue . We simply don’t have time. At this point we should be focusing all of our attention on getting those who do support us to the polls. That is where we have our best chance of winning. While I agree that we need to do more to reach out to the African American community, it is a losing strategy in this situation. Predominantly Democratic African Americans have no motivation to go to the polls at this point. With only a Republican primary, which is likely to be already decided, there is no other issue on the ballot that will get them out to vote in significant numbers. IMO we should let sleeping dogs lie. If we waste resources doing this kind of outreach, it may actually have the opposite effect of that intended by giving anti gay bigots a reason to go to the polls, or at very least remind them of the issue and when the vote is. You wouldn’t suggest wasting precious time and money trying to change the minds of conservative white voters in the western part of the state would you? Neither would I. It would simply be a waste of time. Our only chance of beating this thing is to hope that our enemies stay at home. And unfortunately in this state a large chunk of both the white and black communities are our enemies. We should focus on voters we know support us but may need to be encouraged to go out and vote, like youth, liberals, the well educated, and upwardly mobile urbanites (of all colors). This is war, and we don’t have time for any feel good outreach to those who oppose us. Sorry, that’s just reality. One long term goal of our community should be healing the rift with the larger AA community, but as a practical matter in this situation it just doesn’t make any sense.

In other words, anyone who is going out to vote specifically for this amendment is unlikely to be persuaded to change their mind in such a short period of time. That’s just the sad truth. We need to focus on getting the majority of North Carolinians who say they support us, but may not be directly affected and therefore less motivated, out to vote.

Understand that this comes from my perspective as Hispanic/Latino and Puerto Rican. Some of the attitudes I have of African Americans in regards to this particular issue is a mirror-reflection how I feel about my own so-called community. I hate to admit but it seems, in some cultural and historical sense, Puerto Ricans and Black Americans DO have something in common. Not necessarily a kinship but we’re on a familiar ground on a whole wide range of issues and it’s frustrating as hell when that’s the case when it comes to being conservative.

If it’s any constellation, many White gay men DO dwell on the “XXXX group is more viciously homophobic” meme. It’s not that I don’t sympathize (to a degree) or disagree with that (in some ways)….Just that how many times can you beat a dead horse? I mentioned this before but the same dudes that do exactly that are the same ones that jerk off and have a sexual fetish for men of color. See the irony in that? Dropping the n-bomb and jerking off to images of naked men of color? It’s really LOL and SMH sort of thing. A lot of the issues SciFi Geek raised are not limited to the LGBT community either. Race/colourism still plagues Latin American nations and its people, the gap between the rich and poor is equally astounding, Holy Mother Church continues to have HUGE and profound influence in many of its nations and women seem to be “stuck” in the bottom of the hierarcy, if catch my drift, and then there’s the equally polarized issue of immigration as well.

When, how, and if marriage equality should or will be realized in North Carolina (and it should be) is an important discussion, but it’s not what people are voting on this May.

The people of North Carolina are deciding between marriage equality remaining on the banned substances list, or whether we go into overdrive on banning many more rights and recognitions than just marriage, with a nice helping of gay people are less than in all the newspapers the day after the primary which is sure to make for some rough conversations in the hall ways and classrooms of middle and high schools across the state.

When, how, and if marriage equality should or will be realized in North Carolina (and it should be) is an important discussion, but it’s not what people are voting on this May.

The people of North Carolina are deciding between marriage equality remaining on the banned substances list, or whether we go into overdrive on banning many more rights and recognitions than just marriage, with a nice side helping of gay people are less than in all the newspapers the day after the primary which is sure to make for some rough conversations in the hall ways and classrooms of middle and high schools across the state.

Furthermore, most of us posting here aren’t in the room for statewide strategy sessions, so there’s no reason for most of us to fight about it =p

Most of us are acting and influencing on an individual or local community level. And at that level if there is any single vote that we can use our relationships, our brilliance, our creativity, and our ability to try to reach out to communities that we do not belong to but share common values or aspirations with, then let’s go for that vote. Because if we win this, it’s going to be close and we need those votes.

On the very off chance that ED Campbell busy with a new job during the middle of a large campaign reads the comments 12 deep on this blog I’d like to welcome him to Equality NC. And my only advice would 1) look to Arizona’s example for the one time they had a victory on this issue and 2) remember that just as Texan’s see their state as unique, us North Carolinians see our state as unique so make sure to tailor you to North Carolina not to a generic southern state. Best wishes in your new position!!!

Your assessment of my priorities is a flat-out lie, SciFi and you know it. Search the archives – my priority has always been ENDA, for obvious reasons – we have NO protections in North Carolina. The only reason I’m discussing marriage is because we are trying to stop an amendment. Yeah, I’d love recognition, but I’m more concerned that my spouse can be fired for being gay. Cut the BS.

SciFiGeek chooses to prioritize one identity over another for various reasons which is fine; I try not to tell another POC which identity that he or she must prioritze.

SciFiGeek, though, is quick to point out the problems of the (white) LGBt community as if the black (religious) community is all sweet and innocent and victimized by these terrible and terrifying white gay men.

He refuses to acknowledge the the blatant straight and (frequent) religious privilege possessed by black homophobes.

And of course, given his own self-admitted self-hating issues, that, in large part, seems to account for his out-and-out bile. maybe he needs to look within himself before projecting his own personal issues.